Engineering consultancy Frazer-Nash briefed Minister of Science and Innovation Lord Drayson last week on its work supporting the rehabilitation of service personnel.

Consultant Alex Knight was invited to the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) to showcase two innovative pieces of equipment that Frazer-Nash is designing and building for Headley Court Rehabilitation Centre.  Headley Court supports casualties of war, many of whom are undergoing an intensive period of amputee and prosthetic therapy.

Frazer-Nash was recently awarded a contract by the CDE (funded by the Defence Technology and Innovation Centre) to develop an instrumented wheelchair wheel and an exercise bike for Headley Court.  Known as the Powerwheel, the instrumented wheel will measure the force put into the rim by the user and will be used to help Headley Court staff tailor specific training regimes. The exercise bike being developed will specifically aid victims of blast injuries whose rehabilitation is restricted by the external fixator cages used to set complex bone fractures.

Alex Knight, Frazer-Nash Engineering Consultant, commented:
“We are very proud to be supporting the CDE on these important pieces of work.  The new wheelchair system could help physiotherapists and clinicians gain a greater understanding of patient progress, whilst our designs for the exercise bike should significantly improve the rehabilitation process for patients with external fixators. We have extensive design experience related to these areas from our work in the sports community, so we’re delighted to be able to apply our engineering skills to support the great work that is undertaken at Headley Court.”

Headley Court Complex Trauma Consultant Rhodri Phillip said:
“The rehabilitation team and I are excited about the projects Frazer-Nash has been working on with us to provide a novel exercise bike and wheelchair assessment tool. Both projects should prove highly beneficial to our patients and their rehabilitation. We’ve been involved at all stages of design and been able to influence direction to maximise the devices’ clinical applications, and for that I’m very grateful to Alex and her team. The tight timelines of the CDE projects give us the benefit of seeing real progress in a short amount of time. We’re now looking forward to testing the devices in a clinical environment.”